Sci Fi gossip 1/28/02
dustbunny
Horrors! Stephen King told the Los Angeles Times that he may hang up his pen
for good. King's Rose Red, the currently airing ABC miniseries about a
haunted Seattle house, is one of his last projects, the horror author told
the newspaper.
Up next: a book of short stories, due in March; a novel, From a Buick Eight,
in the fall; the last three novels in the Dark Tower series, to be completed
in the coming year; and a limited series about a haunted hospital for ABC.
"Then that's it. I'm done," he told the Times.
King added, "You get to a point where you get to the edges of a room, and
you can go back and go where you've been and basically recycle stuff. I've
seen it in my own work. People, when they read Buick Eight, are going to
think Christine. It's about a car that's not normal, OK? You say, 'I've said
the things that I have to say, that are new and fresh and interesting to
people.' Then you have a choice. You can either continue to go on or say, 'I
left when I was still on top of my game. I left when I was still holding the
ball, instead of it holding me.' I don't want to finish up like Harold
Robbins. That's my nightmare."
Gaiman Sues McFarlane
American Gods author Neil Gaiman filed suit in federal court in Madison,
Wis., against Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and his companies, arguing that
McFarlane used the characters "Angela," "Cogliostro" and "Medieval Spawn"
without Gaiman's permission, Gaiman's spokesman told SCI FI Wire. The
lawsuit concerns McFarlane's unauthorized use of characters created by
Gaiman, as well as McFarlane's claim to the Alan Moore/Neil Gaiman-authored
comic property MiracleMan. The nine-count suit includes allegations of fraud
and copyright violations and non-payment of royalties.
Gaiman is joined as a plaintiff by Marvels and Miracles LLC, a Wisconsin
limited-liability company that owns the MiracleMan rights of writer Moore
and illustrator Mark Buckingham, the artist for the MiracleMan comic books
that Gaiman authored.
McFarlane's representatives did not respond to a SCI FI Wire request for
comment on the suit.
MTV Developing Spidey Show
Comics writer Brian Michael Bendis confirmed for the Comics Continuum Web
site that he is developing an animated Spider-Man TV series for MTV. "Well,
the worst-kept secret in comics, this week, is true," Bendis said. "I am
writing the new MTV animated Spider-Man series for Sony and Marvel. It's a
very exciting project with some truly inspiring people involved in it."
Bendis added, "It's too early to go into a bunch of specifics. It's not
airing until the fall, but I can tell you that I am one of the executive
producers and have written the pilot. I am writing a smattering of episodes
in the first season, but not all of them. ... This is a [computer-animated]
series, but you have never seen CGI like this. Forget what you are
picturing. It does not look like that. It's using CGI to create a
traditional and really spectacular Spider-Man. Great character acting and
animation. This is not the Ultimate Spider-Man TV show, as has been rumored.
It is based on movie continuity, if continuity matters to you, but it has
the same feel and tone of Ultimate Spider-Man. ... As MTV announced earlier
in the week, the show is green-lit and in physical production."
syvyn11
"dustbunny" <dust...@mindspring.com> wrote in message
news:a34l9r$j1g$1...@slb6.atl.mindspring.net...
>
> Gaiman Sues McFarlane
>
> American Gods author Neil Gaiman filed suit in federal court in Madison,
> Wis., against Spawn creator Todd McFarlane and his companies, arguing that
> McFarlane used the characters "Angela," "Cogliostro" and "Medieval Spawn"
> without Gaiman's permission, Gaiman's spokesman told SCI FI Wire. The
> lawsuit concerns McFarlane's unauthorized use of characters created by
> Gaiman, as well as McFarlane's claim to the Alan Moore/Neil
Gaiman-authored
> comic property MiracleMan. The nine-count suit includes allegations of
fraud
> and copyright violations and non-payment of royalties.
>
> Gaiman is joined as a plaintiff by Marvels and Miracles LLC, a Wisconsin
> limited-liability company that owns the MiracleMan rights of writer Moore
> and illustrator Mark Buckingham, the artist for the MiracleMan comic books
> that Gaiman authored.
>
> McFarlane's representatives did not respond to a SCI FI Wire request for
> comment on the suit.
>
A bit of background on this. Miracleman was first titled Marvelman, a
knock (rip) off of Fawcett's Captain Marvel for the UK. It was Marvelman,
Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman. They changed into thier superhero forms
by saying the magic word, KIMOTA (atomic spelled backwards). They fought
your basic baddies back in the 40's. The company stopped publishing the
books in the 50's.
Fast forward to 1985 a publishing company decides to bring back Marvelman
and give it to Alan Moore. He crafts a tale about MM secret identify being
a fraud. That he and his comrades were actually in a experiment, it's too
long to get into here. But the stories were neat reads.
Fast forward to 1986. Eclipse Comics decides to import the series to
America. Marvel Comics (who were super serious about their copyright and
trademarks) were going to sue Eclipse if they published their Marvelman
comic. Cay Yeornd(sp?) the head of Eclipse thought discretion was the
better part of valor decided to rename the comic MiracleMan. That pleased
Marvel and their lawyers. The series launched for the cheapo price of
$.75.
Fast forward to 1990ish. Neil Gaiman started to write MM. And his
stories were some of the most bizarre that I have ever read. MM and
MiracleWoman (don't ask) decided to recreate the world into a utopian
paradise where everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) goes.
Fast forwards still in the 90's. Eclipse goes out of business.
Fast forward to the later 90's. Todd McFarland buys the entire Eclipse
catalog and rights. Including supposedly Miracleman as well.
Now we have this whole mess. Personally I didn't think Gaiman's stuff on
MM was that good. But I seem to be in the minority in that one.
If I got anything wrong, tell me.
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